Acer Aspire one: An In-Depth Look

By Jeffrey L. Wilson | Jun 12, 2008 06:46 PM EST

Acer sure moves fast. This morning, a little over a week after the company announced its first entry into the mini-notebook space, the Acer Aspire one (Linux version, full review here) arrived in our offices to much glee. We couldn’t wait to test Acer’s answer to the Eee PC, HP Mini-Note, and MSI Wind NB. However, before we began testing, we talked to our Acer rep who informed us that ours is a pre-production model that has a handful of known bugs (primarily inconsistent Wi-Fi and video playback issues), which are being fixed before the system ships. We kept that in mind as we dug into the system and evaluated its potential. Design and Aestheics Upon getting our hands on the Acer Aspire one, one of our first thoughts is that this doesn’t look like a budget machine. Our system sports a glossy white lid on the outside (it will also be available in black and blue), and a glossy black bezel on the inside which frames the 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel resolution display Unfortunately, it was a bit of a fingerprint magnet. What we didn’t like is that the Acer Aspire one has a gap between the bottom of the display and the base of the machine, which reminds us a little bit of the Everex Cloudbook, a mini-notebook we want to forget. Whether or not you like a gap between your screen and your notebook body is totally subjective so we won’t hold that against the Aspire one. Overall, it’s a nice look and one that we’d gladly whip out at a coffee shop without fear of pointing and giggling. Keyboard and Touchpad The 2.2-pound Acer Aspire One features an 89-percent keyboard, which is not as large as layout on the HP Mini-Note or Windbook NB but is big enough for comfortable touch typing. It’s certainly bigger than the Asus Eee PC 900/901. The keys were quite responsive and offered very nice tactile feedback. We plan to put the Aspire one through our touch typing test in the days ahead to see how it compares to its competitors. We’re not big fans of the small touchpad or the mouse buttons that flank it. HP uses the same “buttons on the side” layout on its Mini-Note and, in both cases, we find it awkward. The buttons also feel cheaper than the Mini-Note’s. However, the positive side of a smaller touchpad is that the system itself can be more compact, as less room is used for the wrist rest.

Ports and Dual Card Readers The perimeter of the 9.8 x 6.7 x 1.1-inch Aspire one serves up the following ports: three USB 2.0, a Kensington lock, VGA, Ethernet, and headphone and mic jacks. One particularly useful aspect of the machine is the inclusion of two memory card slots: one dedicated SD, and another 5-in-1. “Why include two card readers,” you ask. Inserting a card into the stand-alone SD slot expands the internal storage. When we popped in a 4GB SD card, it was added to the on-board 8GB of flash for a total of 12GB. The system’s file manager actually adds the additional memory to the total of the internal hard drive so the whole thing looks like one large disk. We had one freezing incident when trying to view photos that were on the 4GB card before we inserted it, but we chalk that up to our system’s preproduction status. This second expansion slot is Acer’s way of accommodating upgraders without encouraging them to monkey with the system’s internal components. This is a good thing, because since the RAM and SSD are soldered into place (according to our friend Brad Linder’s Aspire one dissection) making upgrades to either is pretty much impossible. The Linpus Linux Lite Operating System When the Acer Aspire one hits the market in July, mini-notebookers will be able to purchase the machine with either a Linux or Windows operating system (priced at $379 and $399, respectively). Our model features the Linpus Linux Lite OS, which takes a page from the Asus Eee PC‘s Xandros Linus OS by organizing applications into distinct sections: Connect, Work, Fun, and Files. Under the Connect heading, you’ll find Firefox 2.014, an instant messaging client that’s compatible with AIM, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger, Aspire one Mail, an RSS reader, Skype, and links to Wikipedia, Google Maps, and Hotmail. Work contains the OpenOffice suite, Contacts, Calculator, Notes, and Calendar. Fun houses the Media Master multimedia player, Photo Master picture manager, the KolourPaint paint program, a webcam, and a slew of causal games. The Files section is home to the My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, My Downloads, and My Files folders.

The look of the interface is very simple and clean; our only gripe (and it’s a minor one) is that we had to click an arrow to display all programs in a section, as only three are displayed by default. Located above these areas is a rather cool search box that doubles both as a desktop search tool and a traditional search engine. We decided to test it by typing in “NY Yankees” and clicking the search icon. Seconds later Firefox launched showing Yahoo search results for the query.

After we loaded the machine with multimedia files, we typed in “Sister”, changed the search from “Internet” to “Desktop”, and clicked the search icon. Instead of instantly displaying the results, the Acer Aspire One opened another search box, which was populated with the term we keyed in. Clicking Find initiated the search to find The Noistette’s “Sister Rosetta” MP3. It seemed like an unneeded extra step, but it worked well.

I’d like to know how much of that 8Gb SSD did the OS occupy. The Eee Xandros is 2.35Gb. Pupeee is 1/10 of that. Soldered-in SSD and RAM, same camera, EasyMode interface, buggy WiFi, and audio, looks like a 700 series competitor, NOT a 900 series competitor. In that respeect, the Acer One is a better value. Without a fan, I hope the glaring heat issues of the HP 2133 are not duplicated here. What good is a laptop that is too hot for one’s lap? for $1 put a friggin fan in it.

On the plus side, it is great that they didn’t undersize the right shift key on the keyboard. For touchtypists, this will be a great benefit. I can’t count how many times I have hit the up-arrow key on my Eee PC 900 because of the keyboard configuration. The keyboard on the MSI Wind and newer Eee models like the 901 and 1000 series appear to have the same keyboard configuration with an extremely undersized right shift key.

On the down side, the 2200 maH battery dissappoints. My Eee PC 900 has a 5800 maH battery and I can’t get even 3 hours out of it although that is probably due to the old Celeron 900 MHz CPU. I may sell my 900 and get the Aspire One with the 6 cell battery and an extra 512 Megs of RAM and then put UBUNTU or UBUNTU Netbook remix on it. On the other hand. the MSI Wind looks promising with a nice 10 inch screen though and a comparible price.

I have used my Aspire One for almost a day. I like the feel. I also like the mouse pad and the buttons on the side. I have no problem with wifi. I find Lisa remarks (23 July at 5:58 am) very accurate.

I think the OS modifications for the Acer Aspire One was rushed to market too quickly. I am receiving a lot of updates. I can not use the supplied Mozilla browser or the Media Master application to view MPEG-4 video. The OS is linux but there is no documentation about the Linpus Lite Linux anywhere on the web or with the Acer Aspire One.

A few days ago (July 21), I bought this Aspire One in Maastricht (The Netherlands).
Some remarks:
-The supplied battery was not 22000 mAH but 24000 mAH
-Linpus is a good (Acer) branch of fedora 8 for users migrating from Windows. Experienced linux users can easily modify the system (the console is reachable via the menu of “my documents”). I’ve installed latex with all needed editors (rpm downloaded from rpm.pbone.net – fedora 8 versions) and it is working fine. ALT-F2 gives a “RUN COMMAND” console. From there I start Texmaker or Kile. There is no need to change the standard graphical environment.
-The Dutch traduction of Linpus is not without a lot of mistakes. I hope updates will correct this.
-The software is not totally stable. There are still some minor problems (audio problems in some situations)
-The mouse pad has a really good mouse scroll function when touched in the most right area.
-I’ve paid 299 euro, a good deal for such a well build beauty.

hi – am looking for a small notebook that my daughter (going into 7th grade) can use in school (therefore small and light good), but not too small that she has difficulty typing. she has dyslexia and dysgraphia (disorder affecting her handwriting) – she is very bright – but has trouble physically writing her thoughts down. doyou think this would be a the Acer Aspire would be a good choice for her (think use for this computer would mostly be wordprocessing (word) – would look to get the XP version w/the 6 cell battery if possible, comments and thoughts are much appreciated

I am into my second day of playing with my Acer Aspire One and I found two very annoying problems.

One is the keyboard setting changes to UK and I want US. I am always changing the keyboard setting back to US. I do not see a pattern for the random change back to the UK keyboard. I have every setup setting option for English keyboard not the English/European keyboard.

The other is the Wi-Fi does not work after awaking from sleep mode. The Wi-Fi icon at the bottom of the screen indicates that I am connected to the correct network but I can not connect to the internet. To surf the web after sleep, I need to shut down and power-on again.

I have a similar problem: I want the US keyboard and the default setting is NL. I have to switch sometimes back to US when opening a new application. I am examining the linux config map /etc in an attempt to find the responsible config file. Until now without result. To be continued in time when the right config file is found. Maybe in the meantime an update will fix it.

-An easy way to toggle between the keyboard layouts is ALT-SHIFT
-I changed the keyboard layout settings in the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I’m sure I saved the changes. After reboot, I was surprised to see that the initial file was restored. I don’t know the responsible script that is fixing that..

Yes, in fact, I just finished installing XP Pro with SP3 RTM 5 minutes ago on the Linux version. Booted off the XP Pro CD, erased all partitions (it comes with two partitions), and created one partition with the full 8 GB on it. I then proceeded to install XP (I used an IDE to USB adapter) which took about 2 hours (although the setup said 39 minutes) but it was worth the wait. Drivers are easy to install, works smooth, no more Wifi problems, no more sleep issues, and the boot up time is similar to Linux.

Mathew, I think you are right. It seems to be the /usr/bin/xkb_plugin_set_xorg.sh script that is responsible for messing up the settings in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. For some reason Acer decided that language and keyboard layout are linked in all cases. Maybe someone should pay their software designers a voyage to Europe….

So this should solve your problem too Thomas, I havve a Belgian layout keyboard and want to use my system in English only. If someone wants to test a different keyboard layout, it is easy to change it starting from the console. The command is of course “setxkbmap -layout be” (or whatever countrry code you need) and the change is instant, but limited to that session or a new change.

I absolutely love this machine. Yes, it is based on Fedora and to get more access I found this veery useful:http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/how-to/aspire-one-apps.aspx
Just follow these instructions, you really do need this type of access. And for whom all of this is reelatively new, it can be useful to remember the need to run the filemanager in root mode. Just start it by using Alt+F2, then in the popup enter “sudo Thunar”. A red bar on top warns you that you are in root-mode; so thee risk of doing some ddamage is limited.

I am a college student, and I need something that is portable, light, somewhat fast and that I can type and save papers on. I would like to have some music and pictures on there as well. Not a lot but some. Would this computer be the right choice for me? Do any college students have this machine? Thanks!

Meghan – these small ultralight notebooks are great for surfing, a few minor writings and some music. But they can’t replace the convenience and utility of a regular laptop with a dvd drive, full keyboard, and substantial storage space. For a main machine you need to look at something with at least 12″ of screen. It will be a bit heavier, but well worth the lower frustration/strain factor of looking at the screen for 12 hours trying to get that paper finished.

I have an EEE pc 701 with a 7″ screen and a small keyboard. I love it for travelling and playing around surfing, but you wouldn’t want to produce a 50 page paper and then make significant edits. It could be done, but it wouldn’t be fun.

I got an A1 xp w/120GB HD machine yesterday, 7/31 in Taiwan, about NT 15000, US$500 (tradeshow discount). It has the 6-cell battery which makes it heavier but more stable on table.

Amazing battery life right out of box (80% charge and ran like 5 hours while I installed a few apps and tried hooking up to WiFi at home, cafes and stores). And stayed cool all this time. Even the air out of the vent feels much cooler than usual. Don’t have a software measuring temp but my hands/laps give it a A+. 6 cell definitely adds more weight, and making it a little bit off balanced while holding in 1 hand. The eee and WIND 10″ feels a little bit better balanced (they are thinner and wider), but keyboard is definitely no worse than eee 1000H, and better than MSI WIND (subjective).

As a side note, eee1000H and MSI 10″ (with xP & 80GB HD) are selling for $US 100 more. I had all 3 next to each other and decided on the A1. So it’s that good. I also tested a few of the 12″ with the new Centrino platform (Toshiba, SONY, Lenovo), and I like these mini-notes way better, because of price, xP, portability and so much longer battery life.

Not a whole lot of junkware on it (thank you ACER), but MS still got their trial Office 2007 on it. What’s kind of weird is, the IE starting homepage is not even ACER or MSN, but Yahoo? Some of the shareware on it (like MSN Messenger) are of the real old vintage (as old a when xP was first released). It also comes with 1 year of McAfee for free. Anyhow, this may be all different depending on where you are.

No xP recovery disk, but guess it’s built into the system RAM or something? Or maybe I need to burn a recovery disk? WIll know more once I hook up an external DVD burner. Hooked up a few peripherals, and xP took them without any hitches.

Performance wise it runs xP and apps about same speed as a Pentium 4 3.0MHz, minor lags running IE and downloading things, probably because I am used to PC’s with fast HD, big RAM and running Vista. But if I am in a plane or waiting at a cafe, this speed is totally acceptable. Sorry I haven’t bombard it with serious apps (Adobe, AutoCAD, etc.) but don’t think I ever will (screen too small for serious graphic work). Play videos and music OK and not noticeable lag, but speakers are kind of weak.

Not sure why but I had hard time hooking up to my WiFi router at home. I ended up making my router OPEN, then resecure it again. Did not have this problem at stores or cafes. It also stayed working after waking up from SLEEP mode.

For students or frequent fliers I definitely recommend this (this A1 goes to my college bound son) because you probably need portability more than productivity, and only this and eee 1000H (for the moment) can let you go 6-8 hours without plugging in. And productivity this A1 is still good, because the keyboard is good enough for 2 handed touch typing (bring your fingers closer), and it runs xP, so lots of software to use. Moreover, any good 12″ will set you back $ 2000+, and for that you get shoter battery life, less portability, and Vista.

i am new with linux and am trying to figure out how to change the default keyboard settings. i am able to access /etc/X11/xorg.conf but i’m having a really hard time trying to find /usr/bin/xkb_plugin_set_xorg.sh . someone please help me out. alexn86@aol.com thanks

Hi, i’m from Suriname. A country on the north coast of South America.
after reading your review about the Acer Aspire One. it’s possible that it will be available soon in my country. but the price is yet unknown.
here in my country are people used to Ms Windows and not Linux. but linux looks promessing so i’m up for the challange. i hope that the bugs that were mention in your review will be solve soon. because the Acer Aspire One may be a solution to my computing need. i’m always on the go and this maybe the answer.
i hope that you have more update on this machine and please let me know thru my e-mail. thank you for the nice review. this is helpfull before perchasing one myself.
my regards:
rudolf…

Hey Peter, same problem ie e-mail won’t work (horaay, thought it was just me). Won’t work on my home network, but does work at my office. Home has a D-Link DSL-502T router and I’m guessing it doesn’t like Linux. Will try the DMZ setting tonight to see if that works.

Otherwise I like it. Wouldn’t mind trying to install a ‘better’ ie more flexible OS like Ubuntu. Anyone tried? I plugged in an external CD drive and tried installing XP Pro yesterday and it stopped part way through, so don’t know what the problem was there.

Australian PC User magazine produced an improved, super-lean version o Xubuntu which I’d like to try when I figure out how! I have it as an ISO image on a pen drive, which I can tell it to boot from but doesn’t install????

I have just bought a beautiful glossy white Acer Aspire One with Linpus Linus for 299 euro.
After using it for two days I am very happy with my choice. The laptop is beautiful, battery lasts long, keyboard is comfortable and screen is nice.
But there is one thing that I seriously don’t like: there is no Skype installed! How could the dear people at Acer forget to install the most used free international video-call program? They should seriously add Skype as an update to download automatically when performing the easy automatic system update.
The ASUS Eee PC does have Skype pre-installed, but the machine has a too small keyboard for me and I like the appearance of the (white) Acer Aspire One more.

I have just bought an ACER ASPIRE one and it is a great netbook.
However I seem not to be able to get the keyboard layout correct, it is fitted with an AZERTY layout while the O/S thinks it is an QWERTY one; in addtion the programs are all in DUTCH. I have tried to change the setting in the “Instellingen” (settings) applet but it does not accept the FRENCH keyboard layout.

Bought the unit at Circuit City, and it works fine. No msjor issues…however.

When I attempt to install XP (Home Edition, no SP on CD), I can boot to the external CD Drive, and start the installation. When it gets to “Starting Windows” I get a blue screen of death. Do I need to preformat/partition the 8GB drive before I run the install CD?

There is an other Eee-killer joining the mini notebook market: The Dell E. It has not been confirmed by Dell, but it’s supposed to launch his month. See: http://netbookusers.com
I can’t find any pre-order possibilities yet.

Just got my acer two days ago. I’m impressed with how easy linpus linux is to use, once you’ve enabled the “advanced’ mode so you can right click on the desktop (you can find out how on youtube). I’ve installed printer drivers, connected to a wireless internet connection, played around with the general settings, etc… This machine sets up internet connections much easier than my imac does with osX. I can’t get most of the compiz effects to work (can’t figure out where to find the keyboard commands), and i’m not sure how to create a bootable usb drive. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
For the price this is one great little laptop. Sure it’s not as comprehensive as a regular laptop- try hooking up a camera or ipod to this thing- it doesn’t have a clue what to do, but for surfing the net, messaging, email, school notes, etc.. it does the trick. Not bad for $400 cdn taxes in.

Hey I am thinking of buying this….I live in Canada and there is this really cheap computer store selling these babies for 400 a piece. I was unsure if I was going to get one but then i watched a few reviews on YouTube (how could we live without YouTube :)) and Im going to buy it tomorrow.
If you guys are unsure just take at a few reviews on YouTube and you will see that all of them are positive and quite happy with this product. So great that Acer clued in that people want a CHEAPER similar thing to eee pc.

Received my Acer Aspire One with 1Gb RAM 120GB HD and WIN XP from The Nerds today $434 delivered. I works great. Installed Skype, Picasa, Firefox 3 and upgraded the Windows Media Player v9 to v11. Home Wifi works great. Battery life is every acceptable, but I’ve just ordered the larger battery from CDW. I’ll connect it to my Blackberry for broadband Internet access since there’s no PCMCIA or Express slots. Reads external USB HD’s and thumb drives without a hitch.

I just need to get used to the 89% sized keyboard, my big fingers seem to be making more mistakes than usual.

It’ll be traveling to Europe next month and I wasn’t too excited about lugging a Dell 17″ notebook around.

got a bit of an issue anyone had this problem? Acer aspire linpus lite installed vlc media player alls great!! But the volume icon has dissapeared from my taskbar thingy and volume suxs on the net but great everywhere else! HELP ithis is really doing my poor head in. Much app ben.

hi!
can somebody please help me how to install skype. my keyboard also seems to be wacko, i cannot type the question mark or the dash etc etc. i read acer guys tips, but got lost when he wrote that under systems you can find the add remove software… where is that. going nuts here, want to have skype up and running! thank you so much in advance…

OK – I’m flummoxed! My linpus aspire one came with a UK keyboard (shift-3 = £), but with US keyboard configuration. I enabled Xfce (thank you Marc for the link to laptopmag.com, above), and following the good advice of Matthew, Marc and Nederfox I made the following edits in root mode:

– etc/sysconfig/i18n such that LANGUAGE & LANG both read en_gb.UTF-18
– usr/bin/xkb_plugin_set_xorg.sh had all references to “us” changed to “gb”, and the last line cp command was edited out with //
– etc/x11/xorg.conf had “XkbLayout” in “Input Device” changed to “gb”

I even double-checked usr/share/x11/xkb/symbols to make sure that it was “gb” and not “uk”, but all to no avail; when I type shift-3, I still get #, dammit! The only noticable change is that the blue “EN” symbol has disappeared from my tray (?).

Anybody got any clever ideas, other than tippexing out the key labels, and getting my employers to pay me in $’s instead of £’s?

Hi folks! Yesterday, my Aspire One arrived (yey!). It has 120gb hard drive, 1gb ram, Windows XP, and a 6-cell battery. There are a few strange problems, however. First, and most importantly, I can’t get it to recognize the ethernet cord I use to access my broadband Internet connection. Second, it doesn’t have any software to use the built-in webcam. The drivers for both of these devices are there, but the devices themselves are non-functional. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the ethernet driver, and even tried the Acer eRecovery Management tool. I’m prepared to wait until Monday to get some help from the Acer folks by phone, but if anyone has experienced similar problems, or has any suggestions on how to fix it, I would be very interested in learning about this! Thanks so much!

Got my 1g/120mb one yesterday and very happy so far. Great screen and keyboard good to use.
Agree with previous comments regards no preloaded sykpe. Main reason I got it was to pick up emails and talk to the kids over skype when away on business (one trip to Japan without mobile phone bill will nearly pay for the thing!)
Took me all afternoon to install skype or rather find it once it was installed – hidden away in downloads which I still have to find ever time i restart as I have yet to find a way to make a shortcut on the desktop. If anyone has any advice on this?
Also have had no success as yet adding music files. I have tried both directly from my ipod and from an external hird drive. They copy over OK but the Acer system does not recognise the files. Anyone got any ideas?
Otherwise, an excelent little machine.

OK. I read the reviews and finally bought an Aspire One with XP. Problem is that it doesn’t come with much in the way of instructions. Thanks to laptopmag for it’s in-depth review. What I can’t figure out now is how to turn off the two finger zoom function. I disabled the “tap to click” function but occasionally when I rest two fingers on the touch pad I get the “move” cursor and text either zooms in or out. I can play around with it until it changes it back, but can’t find out how to control it. Any help out there?

I’m in GB, I’ve got aEnglish keyboard but USA config Tech blokes at Acer said that mine was USA built and a patch will be provided to correct it. However I don’t seem to be able to download upates – I can browse, what am I doing wrong.I also can’t set up my current tiscali e mail account on it. I’b be grateful for any help

couple of things. It has been having major issues on my wifi connection. Very very slow to connnect to my rounter (2 other laptops in home have zero problems). Not sure if this is just a setting on its wifi adapter or something worse. At first it would not connect via ethernet cable either because I got about 80-100 feet of cable between computer and cable. I solve this problem fast by, go in to the device manager selection (control panel/system/hardware/device manager/network adapters/(something like…ethenetcard/advanced/(the link speed option)/ (then set to) half 10mpbs half duplex
The default it Autodetect but if you are using very long distances of cat-5 cable, you may experience connectivity issues.

I bought the linux version, but had to take it back as it wouldn’t work with my 3g modem (no drivers) and then bought the XP version. All fine – except it gets alot hotter and makes more noise (fan) than the linux version, which I can live with, but the real killer is that the wifi connection is sloooow… I’ve updated the wifi driver to the latest version, but it is still really slow (like 56k modem) on the 3 wifi networks I’ve connected to, all with different routers, Dlink, Netgear and SMC. Does anyone have a fix for this?

I too purchased the XP 120gb version.
As the XP version was the home edition, I removed it and installed the Professional version.
The machine is quite able. I increased the memory to 1.5gb and noticed a performance improvement.
I am currently running virtual machines via Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007 and Adobe Reader 9 and a USB modem with no problems. I do not use WI-FI and so cannot comment.
The above are all positives. On the negative front I would include the soldered memory, 2gb would be fantastic and the difficulty of upgrading the machine. (I was glad to see a YouTube video whilst I conducted the memory upgrade.)
One further thing to note, is that I intend to upgrade the Seagate 120gb to a 320gb at 7200 rpm. This will give the machine a further performance boost, but is mainly to run virtual machines and then buy the enhanced battery.
It may be cheap and should be cheaper if you consider that basic laptops now sell (with XP /Vista) for about the same price but it can do some serious work and is both light and powerful.

I got one of these babies too – bought the 1GB RAM/120GB HDD version with Windows XP, which lasted all of about 3 minutes before I made a bootable USB pendrive for Ubuntu Linux. In those three minutes, IE was a little laggy and I found that startup seemed to take forever. Never was a fan of Windows anyway.

In its current configuration, it runs like a dream. Initial configuration required a little finangling, but nothing too hard for even a newbie like me. There are a lot of helpful guides out there. Wifi works fine, webcam works fine, videos play fine…. in short, this is exactly what I needed for my college courses. It’s very light and compact, and convenient for me to check emails between classes. Performance is equal to or better than my cheapo Toshiba Satellite that came before, and even my $1600 Fujitsu S-series before that. I love the keyboard – it didn’t take very long for me to adjust to touch typing on this. I LOVE this thing.

I have been testing the Acer One for 12 days. It stopped working!! Couldn’t do anything. Nothing on the screen. The power lite was green. I tried turning it off. Nothing happened. This morning it starting working again. The amber lite battery indicator is always on. Not sure whether or not to keep it or return it. I think it has a glitch.

I’ve had my acer one for a couple of days. I like this little machine, and in the out of the box configuration everything seems to work. It picks up my network from other rooms and so I can do email anywhere in the house. It downloads spreadsheets from exel and they are easily readable. It downloads word files and reads them. It downloads pdf files and reads them.
To my mind, this kind of a market entry is what has been needed a long time. As a linux machine it will bring millions of people to linux. And with linux Acer and others can bring a great little machine like this to us at a low cost, and we con do upgrades that don’t require hundreds of dollars for every new software.
It takes me back to the days of the commodore 64 which also cost about $300 but in 1980 dollars, And the disk drive also cost $300 and then you had to have a tv or a monitor. So this little machine is way less than the 64 was, and incredibly more capable, and it will introduce linux to millions if it is done right and could finally break the hold of microsoft on the market.
But there has to be better documentation. I have learned more about the machine from commentators and the web than from the manual. As each of us tries to customize the machine for our own use…more memory etc. there needs to be specific information about how to do it. Otherwise it will just fail.
And there are still glitches. I have had much trouble trying to add an sdhc memory card.
I bought a 4 gig card and loaded some pdf data from my pc onto the card then put the card in this machine. It wouldn’t read the pdf’s. It did read a couple of videos I put on the card. It takes a long time with the card memory and locks up frequently regardless of which slot you put it into. Remove the card and it boots fine.
Sometimes it sees it, sometimes it doesn’t. Reboot doesn’t always help. Once used in the left hand slot of this machine my pc can’t read the card anymore and won’t reformat it. Now this machine won’t recognize it either.
There are larger memory cards now, up to 16 gigs for SDHC. However they operate at different speeds. No information about how fast the speed is that this machine will accept. $99 for a fast 8gb card and then maybe it won’t read it.
Acer you’ve done a wonderful job so far, but you need to get a more detailed manual out.
Linpus…we need a manual from you also.
One of the fun parts of a small machine like this is being able to tweak it and upgrade it, but we need to have a little help how to do that.
The manual has to tell us how to add memory; how to customize the desk top; what outside memory can be used; will it be compatible with a windows pc so that a portable hard drive can be used for data and then used on both?
The more you can put in the more we can use this machine and the more dominant it can become in the marketplace.

I bought this computer 17 days ago at a Best Buy in Colorado… I paid $379 with tax for it. It came with 1GB of ram, Windows XP Home, and the Intel Atom. I got the blue model. I love this computer! It is very light. Definitely a GREAT investment… The Wifi has a very strong signal. But can I upgrade my 1GB ram to 2? I don’t “need” to, but I would like it as fast as possible. Also; I only have a 3-cell battery… The life is about 2:30 but I would like more that 3:30…. How much would it cost to get a 6-cell and where would I get one?

Hi Everybody!!!!! I got a question. What do U think. Is the any possibility to use the same function – Smart File Manager – to make a primary SSD patrtition biger when we add a SD Card – I found that oprion onlu under a Linux ver. on my A1 but how to do that under WinXp?

I have the XP version of the A1. I do a lot of traveling and this one was perfect for me. I sometimes carried it in an extra large fanny bag. I have a much smaller sony vaio but screen is to small and gives me a headache. No problem up to 41 days. Three days ago it went to sleep on the table-Could not wake it up. Charge lite on green power button on and spinning hard drive and black screen. Best buy GEEKS could not resuscitate it. Becasuse I had it for 44 days now, they will not exhange it but will send to ACER for repairs- turnaround time 3 weeks. So here I am on the road back to the SONY vaio where all my data and contacts are backed up What a disapointment.

Hi all, I have some question.
My one spec is 1GB of ram, Windows XP Home, and the Intel Atom.
why my aspire one cannot show the axactly RED color?
I have tried to adjust in the “Intel(R) GMA Driver for mobile” but it still not improve issue.

I had spent time debating which, if any mini-laptop to buy. After several weeks of considering I decided on the Acer One with the 120 Gig hard drive and Windows XP. Over all I am very pleased with this it runs most things I need to very well. I think the processor speed is very adequate. I co-worker is more of a computer geek than I am he has 4 desktops, 1 server and 5 laptops in his home. He recently purchased a HP tablet PC for about a grand. After he used this Acer One he was impressed to the point that he said he would of rather purchased this than his tablet PC.
I have loaded some videos onto a jump drive to watch and I am very pleased with how it plays movies. My Wi-Fi works flawlessly it has far more wi-fi strength than my Dell laptop and his HP tablet. This laptop runs cooler that any other laptop I have used, I have had 4 other laptops. I can type as well on this keyboard as any other keyboard.
I really do not see any drawback to this laptop other than the zoom feature with the keypad, I am going to look to see if it can disabled. The battery life on this is comparable to most other laptops I have had but I will look into the possibility of upgrading to the 6 cell battery.
I travel by train and by air on a regular basis and the size of this is perfect for my traveling. It is easy to stash away or carry with me when I get up and walk around on the train.
I would recommend this mini laptop for anyone that is considering purchasing one.

i got mine 2 days ago, its very good in terms of using the internet and checking emails etc but everytime i save my homework on the open office it always gets deleted the next day so then i forget what ive written for my homework i dont understand why it does that !!

I bought one for my daughter 45 days ago as she has a learning disability and needs it to assist her reading & writing , I have just sent it to the acer repair depot in Ont.($35 freight) it was shutting off, I’m sure it is a heat issue as we were running it on a freezer pack to backup some data, it worked fine on the freezer pack. I hope that this is not ongoing and will be fixed as this was a great help for my daughter as it is small enough to keep at her desk, starts up fast enough to use in class, light enough for a small child to carry in her pack and as she does not need it on constantly the battery(3cell) is sufficient

Hi I live in New Zealand (the little country south-east of Australia) and I dont know anybody with linux. How is it better that Windows? Also I read somewhere that it doesnt do Hotmail, is that true? In NZ we dont yet have the 6 cell battery but I am hoping of getting the AA1 when it comes with a bigger battery. Also what is WiFi? I dont know anybody who uses it so what do you use it for? If I get an AA1 should I get Linux or Windows and why? I want to use it for Homework and Surfing the Net along with doing some photos. One more question can you conect you ipod into itunes on the AA1? Thanks.

What is better Linux or Windows and why? I dont have a AA1 but am hoping of getting one soon. I want to use it for photos, Homework and the Net. What is WiFi because I dont know anybody who uses it. Can you connect your ipod to itunes on this computer? Thanks.

I bought my Aspire one notebook four days ago and I must say it is by far much better than a laptop. However i have one issue that is very troublesome. I’m always drawing and downloading pictures onto it and poems and things to put on an art website for others to view. when I’ve saved it to the site, I usually delete the picture or document from the computer to save space. However, every time I go onto the paint function or the writing program to delete the file it gives me a message saying something along the lines of “so sorry, but there is no wastebasket or trash on this computer so we cannot remove anything you may save on here” So I’m wondering if there is a way to download a wastebasket or some way of deleting things from the notebook.

hello all of you
i just want to warn you of one important thing,
i got this AspireOne imported from japan last month, also a friend of mine.
we both were happy having this little machine with all these big functions yet a reasonable Price!
the worst is that mine has stopped working (nothing on the screen and just the fan whistling!)
i tried to connect it to another Screen but in vain, nothing on the other screen either.
i thought it is only me who has this trouble until my other friend (who has also imported at the same time, same type, same color…) He also experienced the same stuff!
nothing on the screen and it seems it is burned (pissed-up > sorry!)
well now after all, i will resend it back to the store i got it from, since it is still under warranty
am just curious of what it might be the reason behind this!
we are using here 220 V electricity. all other USB devices been connected to it are good …??!!!
thanx !

I just got an Acer Aspire. So far I like it EXCEPT for the zoom control. My mouse controls the zoom and for some reason it is constantly zooming me smaller and larger. I don’t need zoom – how do I get rid of it!

I just got the Aspire One 120GB Hdd w/ Xp Home. I love this little thing. I’ve had it for about 2 weeks. I bought it for college because I got tired of lugging around 50lbs of books plus 15+lbs of fullsized laptop and it’s case and stuff. I just throw this little thing in my book bag and I’m on my way. I’ve had a dozen people come up to me asking about it. They can’t believe its so small AND usable. People are really impressed with it. So am I. They’re really impressed when you can watch videos and play video games on it as well. And for $350 it’s not too hard on the pocket book either. I love my Aspire One.

The MSI Wind may indeed be a better deal. It’s all the same hardware plus a 1″ larger screen for the same price now. And had I known it had gone on sale I probably would have bought it. But 1″ is nothing to worry about. I’m happy with the Aspire One and I love it. One thing the Aspire One has that the MSI Wind doesn’t is style.

can someone help me im using acer aspire one but somehow when im using the internet, it hanged several minutes then the internet connection was absolutely lost, the intenet icons below was diappeared i even used an internet cable but i cannot configure the internet connection no internet connection at all..kindly help me thanks

hi everyone,
does any one have problem with LCD. when i decrease the brightness of LCD , the screen is startle and shaking .this problem show itself when you use your laptop whitout extenal power becuase the brightness decrease automatically.
Thanks,

One of these things just died on me! The piece of ‘hardware’ just went off and never to power back on again. Am being told to replace the mail board but i doubt i’ll be doing that. Am done with it. yea right, the Aspire-one has inspired me to get a new laptop. Kuddos Acer pple!

This feature is called “pinch”. To control it, place two fingers on the touchpad. Slide them together to soom in, slide them apart to zoom out. Simple as that. And annoyingly easy to to do accidentally.

To disable it on an XP is very similar to Vista: go to start/control panel, select “Printers and Other Hardware” then “Mouse”, or right-click on the Synaptics Pointing Device icon in your system tray and select “Pointing Device Properties”. Next open the “Device Settings” tab and click “Settings”. From the menu on the left, select the + next to “Pointer Motion” then select “Pinch”. Finally, un-check the box next to “Enable Pinch”, hit “Apply”, and say “Goodbye Pinch!”

hi… my unit is installed with windows instead of linox…. well at first it was great.. but dont know coz it came to a point that it started to lag…. so everything slowed down… from start up to the desktop til shut down… wat will i i do??? need help…

Acer is known for products which break and freeze. One laptop they sold through Best Buy would not allow typing of 2 letter in a row. For example, letter would be “leter” and allow would be “alow”. They are weak in their QC group.

That being said, this little notebook is a cute accessory for the woman on the go.

I just bought the acer aspire one yesterday at Radio Shack…does anyone know how to turn the hot keys thing off? when I try to type certain letters, H brings up history, U changes my screen display size, S brings up a search screen and there are some others…anyone know how to stop this?

Got the XP version. Had the same problem with losing WiFi connection. Narrowed down the problem to the WiFi locks up when power cord isn’t in. I think it is some sort of driver problem with power saving settings. There isn’t any fix at the Acer web site but I found a work around. The work around I found is (a) plug it in or (b) use a USB cordless mouse. For some reason by keeping the power refreshing with the USB mouse plugged in, it doesn’t allow the power saver to kick in and disable the WiFi. I don’t keep the mouse with me but I keep the USB part plugged in. This keeps the WiFi running and I don’t have any problems anymore with losing connectivity. This is just an educated guess as to what is the cause, but the solution definitely works. Using it now and haven’t had the WiFi drop me since I started using this workaround 2 months ago.

I just received the Aspire One yesterday and everything seems to work fine except I cannot download games from Shockwave, I keep getting an error message. Someone said that this laptop is not designed to download and play games on. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

I bought my A1 about a month ago. 120G drive with 3 cell battery. $349 @ Staples. I just gave the pink A1 to my daughter for Christmas $400 online with 160G drive 6 cell battery. I will most likely by the after market 9 cell which brags 9 hours 40 min run time. I expect to get a solid 7 hours using WIFI! I am very happy with it, my desk top sits idle now! The keyboard is good, I have the mousepad disabled and use a mini wireless mouse instead! I think the netbook segment of the computer industry is going to boom! Watch for all manufacturers to partner up with service providers. AT&T is already offering deals on the A1 with service contract!

this is the best computer ive ever goten lol CUZ I GOT IT IN PINK LOL but the case smells like a fish deck i looked at the store for a newcase well a coolor one to maybe pink or silver and i couldnt find any i hope thay make some cool ones cool accesories i mean but its amazingly cooll i think MERRY 2 DAYS AFTER CHRISTMAS lol

Does anyone know of a photoediting software that will work on the aspire one? I tried Corel PhotoImpact x3 & Photoshop Elements. Neither one will work because the screen resolution is too low. They will install, but not run. I just need something simple for cotrast, brightness, resizing, etc. Nothing too fancy. Thank you!!

got an acer aspire one for christmas for my son and it’s only been a week and it is flashing the infamous blue screen at start up but i can’t get it to stay long enough to tell me what the problem is, then it goes right to the “start in safe mode screen”….any help out there? I know this is cheap for a laptop but it should last more than a week!

I bought one of these netbooks a little while ago on Amazon. I got the 160 Gb version of the Aspire One with Windows XP installed on it. I love everything about it except the button location on the track pad button locations. But for the low price I was willing to get used to it. I did, however, see a video of some guy taking it hang gliding – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfxlNM4286E

Following Karen’s comment, we’re getting the same with the one we got for xmas where the machine needs a reboot in order to get the menu bar back. something to do with the screen resolution methinks but can’t work out how to stop it doing this. Anyone? Someone? Please.

I got my acer about a month ago and when i bought it came with a hp 4200 all in one printer. Unfortunately when I try to hook it up it keeps asking for me to put the cd in the drive. obviously i can not do that, so I just try to plug the usb in to the computer, but that is not working either. I really have no idea what to do, if someone could please give me any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

I’m having trouble printing. I have the Acer Aspire One with the Linpus Linux Lite v1.0.3.E operating system. 8 GB. I’m trying to print on a Canon i550 printer. My system recognized the i550 but won’t print.

I tried to email the document to my own address so as to access it on the desktop that’s usually hooked up to the i550 and print it out via that computer, but find I can’t email the document. It shows the capability but when I actually do it nothing happens.

Help, please! I need a hard copy of this document asap. Thanks in advance.

Kellie: I just got an HP printer (all-in-one) myself, and installed it on my acer aspire one, I stashed the cd in the box, and found the DRIVERS online. Just search for the same stuff thats on the CD online, at the HP website.
It downloads as an executive file, but open it and it will run the same installation thing that the CD would have, and then it will prompt you to connect youre usb cable to your computer (you really shouldn’t connect anything before you install it unless certified “plugnplay”)

Ive just skipped over getting the external drive! I find everything I need online!
=]

I don’t think too much of the email program supplied with the Linux version, but otherwise, i have had NO problems with my A1. Has anyone successfully loaded Thunderbird or another email app on the Linux version? Any advice?

For HP all in one printers, mine prints fine with USB cable and for a “driver” I picked any office Jet, the J5700, I think. In my case i just needed basic any-old-printing.

Radio Shack is selling these for $99 with a built-in aircard that lets you connect to the internet from anywhere in AT&T’s cellular area. The catch is that you have to sign up for a two year service plan.

I am running a1 with ubuntu 8.10 for 2 months and it works great. Only issue was wifi driver did not work, so I had to switch to the ath5k driver in the ubuntu backports repo. I have had no major issues. Be careful of the wifi hardware enable/disable switch when using ubuntu 8.10 because the light does not work, so the wifi will disable and you will not realize why. I Just bought a gig of ram to upgrade from 1 gig to 1.5. I really wish I could put two gig of ram, that would be ideal.

i am 12 and i cant wait to get it you people are so crazy about the stuff the computer cant do and you should be really thinking about the stuff that the computer can do most computer arent that small so grow up you sissies jeez!

well, it worked amazingly…..for about a week. i just got a message saying ” shutting down for HIBERNATION..” wtf? is this normal……once the screen went dead, the day i got it…but it came right back on when i restarted it. this thing is acting DEAD. no matter what i do..i just get an orange led light in the left corner. can anyone help?

I just purchased the Acer Aspire One at Radio Shack and purchased the Data Connect from ATT. Does anyone know how to set up outlook express? I have nothing from ATT so when I’m connected to wireless internet, where do I find out the server name? Does anyone have the outlook express or outlook they are using on this netbook? If you are, please let me know how to set it up.

I got version with 8.9 screen but I will buy the new 10.1 inch acer aspire one form amazon. I like the display to be e little bigger so 10 inche would be fine. Also is a nice idea to shop for a 9 cell battery and a mini usb bluetooth. From all the new netbook products like HP, MSI Wind, Asus EeePC, etc. I think that the acer aspire one is the best buy.

I got my laptop this weekend, and up until know I’ve been loving it. Today, I was listening to music on a page of my brothers and suddenly a blue screen came up and said that in order to save my lap top or something I had to reboot it now. Well, I turned it off, and now it wont turn back on. I start it up, it goes to the black start up screen, then a blue screen flashes and it puts me back to the same black screen. Any help would be really appreciated!!!!

Have A1 since mid-January and have just read through ALL comments on this blog to see what pluses/minuses others have experienced. I did have to replace it once after a few days from purchase due to defective software, but had no problems with Best Buy doing so. Have had minor, repairable glitches since, but with a USB mouse I am mostly happy. My BIG complaint is LOW maximum volume on sound and lack of definitive instructions. Also, Pacific Standard Time does not seem to be an option and though I keep resetting the time it will change after every turnoff to something 2-3 hours off. Can I download a manual from Acer? I had to take it into Verizon to get software for USB modem to install properly, but they too were helpful and that is done.

My husband bought me an Acer Aspire One for my birthday a few days ago and I love it.. all except for the sound issue.. I can’t hear anything without headphones and even with, it is pretty awful. We are going to take it back tomorrow.. hope it is just a ppoblem with this individual machine and not with them all!
Kay (New Zealand)

After the beast of a dell gave up on me, I wanted to try an ultraportable. So got a AAO 1gb XP a month ago. I read enough reviews before buying this thing, so I was all prepared to see a cramped keyboard, tiny screen and barely enough CPU power to run office apps. Guess what? surprise I’m doing all that I used to do on my dell monster, except for graphics intensive games. The keyboard takes some time to get used to but quite usable, I hate the tiny trackpad but that is ok when you’re on the road. Screen is so bright it hurts, 1280×600 is enough for most purposes. When I use it for long hours I use a external 22″ screen with a mouse. Just perfect for my needs, light, portable and powerful for most if not all purposes. At any point in time I have winamp, msoffice, firefox, netbeans (yeah! I’m serious), notepad, skype, and av/firewall running at the same time, never seen it stutter nope!, never. Maybe I’m lucky. Cheers! BUT it does get HOT!

I love this netbook! However, recently it has been saying to install the disc to reboot and of course, there isn’t a place to do that. Any way to download something so I don’t need to get and external hard drive? Thanks!

@anonn: I somehow feel you dont own one. wireless is the only network I have been using, I use yahoo IM, skype, never seen an issue with live update. And BTW Acer never advertised AAO, so you’ve got it all wrong. BTW come clean and tell us what brand you own, so that we’ll all avoid it. If there is a serious problem, why dont you return your AAO.

No I’m not associated with Acer in anyway, I’m just a happy user of Aspire One

I have owned this wonderful A1 netbook for 3 weeks. I realize I need an ext hd so that I can install a few programs I want. It cost me $159.99 at Radio Shack and truthfully I couldn’t be happier with its performance! I even watched a movie last night on Netflix’s web site.

You need ext speakers to hear or headphones btw. As for printing, go to the web site of the manufacturer of the printer so you can get to printing and it should work great!

My purpose for this netbook is that I aqm a travel nurse and pay most of my bills online and also, I trade stocks,bonds and mutual funds online. I have made soe serious $$$ because I can get online faster and execute a trade order far quicker than my desktop.
Next month I’ll be on a travel assignment and I know this is going to be my lifeline all the way!!!!

I write for a living and am interested on this for when I’m on the road. What software does it come with, or will it handle a full version of WordPerfect 10, 11 or 12 (don’t like Word or Open Office for writing)?

I bought an Acer Aspire One 1 month ago and I found a problem that is driving me crazy.
The screen turns off (like screensaver) but when I try to turn it on, presseing a buton it doesn’t turn on. Can someone help me please.
I call ACER for support but they doesn’t know what F… is going on.

did you check your power settings F3 and take look at “turn off monitor” its usually set to 3 mins on battery, try changing it to longer. If your power light is turned off, it might have hibernated, try powering on again. Hmm.. otherwise cant think of any useful advice..

The Easy Peasy Compatibility list could really use some input from you. It seems that you probably have a Acer Aspire One netbook which is on our list but we don’t have the details of how it works with Easy Peasy 1.0. Would you guys be willing to help us out with this? If yes, then please follow these simple instructions to input your details.

I have had mine for 4 months and when I tried to open today, I can’t see anything on the screen. I don’t think it booted up but I am not getting anything but a quick flash of something on the screen when I hit the power button. The light is on but nothing on screen. Anyone else have this problem

Hi just brought my little acer one today and am very pleased with it’s portability! As a uni student this is the main reason i bought the computer! However, i am worried that after my free 60 trial of windows XP runs out, then i am stuck with no way of putting it on my new computer. And i don’t particulary want to pay a fortune just to put windows back on it. I already have a windows 07 CD that i can use, but there is no CD drive in the computer!

Hi Sarah, AAO comes with a activated version of XP, just check if you have a windows certificate sticker at the base of your netbook. You just need to register with microsoft with your info. In any case, if you want to revert your netbook to factory installation at any point you just need to press a ctrl + F11 (I think) during boot time to launch the eRecovery process. So you dont need windows CD at all, the windows image is already backed up on your netbook.

Hello,
I bought my acer aspire one netbook on easter monday for about N45000 i used it for just 36 hours and it kept on hanging …after a few hours it stopped booting and the screen eventually got blank.I took it to acer warranty center and they held on to it for about 3 weeks.Now that i have got it back its still hanging ceaselessly …i am regretting buying this netbook.It seems i have wasting my hard earned cash.If you have any info that could help me get it working perfectly please tell me what i can do… send me an email blaq_naija_ambassador@yahoo.com .
Thanks
Ibrahim

NUGPIE: I have the same probblem.
I have had mine for 3 months and when I tried to open today, I can’t see anything on the screen. I don’t think it booted up but I am not getting anything but a quick flash of something on the screen when I hit the power button. The light is on but nothing on screen.
Anyone else have this problem and solution? dcaicedo@insitel.com

Mitra & DocM: Have you tried installing your wireless/usb mouse drivers? If its on a CD, you will have to copy it to a usb flash disk, or download the drivers from the vendor website directly. BTW I use a logitech cordless mini, never had to install anything, just works out of the box.

Regarding so many screen blank and non-bootable comments, I think these are h/w issues, hope acer is listening in on this conversation. Return those defective units folks, dont let acer get away with it.

Thanks idcj.
I had xp disks re-installed at PC world, cost me £30. Don’t know much how to do these things. Thanks for yous help. Now I want to install MS WORD 2000. Can I copy it to a SD or SDHC card and install the programme in AAO. Will be grateful for your advice. This time I will wait. Not spending another £30!

@doc.m: If you have a serial key, you can just copy the office installer pack to SD or any USB based flash drive, and you should be good to go. BUT if you have one of those OEM disks which require you to install from CD only, then you will have a problem. You will have to find a office setup/installer that works without CD, or consider an alternative like openoffice.org

I have an Acer Aspire One and it was working fine for a week. Then it started getting blue screens when ever I turned it on. It would go to a blue screen saying my memory was being dumped or something like that, then it would restart. I brought it back twice to the place I’m renting it and all they did was put it back to how they got it from the company. It still goes to the blue screen when it has been off for a couple hours. Sometime it will do it once and then start up fine and sometimes it will do it like three times and start up finally. Yesterday I couldn’t even get on the Internet b/c it wouldn’t connect and I didn’t do anything different. I like this computer for the size and it is easy to carry to college and anywhere i want to go with it but it doesn’t seem to be working right. I was wondering if I am the only one having this problem and if they know what could be the problem.

Hey, well I have one of these, and I tried to enlarge the RAM, but I couldn’t, then I found a card slot, not sure what kind of card, but it’s located in the battery bey, so you pull out the battery and there will be the card slot an there is a sign, so if anybody could tell me what is than for, or how do I enable it I’d be really thankful. So thanks and goodbye.

Have no problems ( brand new 2 months ago ) up until now, the power will turn on, but nothing appears on the screen – blank screen!
Will be sending it back on Monady if until then anyone can help me!?
Cheers, Nat.

this keyboard is driving me insane. Not because I have big sausage fingers (cause I’ve come to terms with that). Its the bloomin’ at key. It just cant get it to work. I’ve resorted to copying and pasting someone elses e-mail address and changing it!!!

Also I am rubbish and bought this laptop cos I thought an idiot like me could use it. I know someones already put some sort of answer to the question but can anyone please put that in leymans terms???

Can someone please help get my keyboard back to normal? I don’t know if it’s the green keys or what but I’m typing away and suddenly a calendar pops up or the screen goes back several pages or a letter just won’t type. It’s driving me nuts! I’ve played with all the locks – number, scroll etc.

I have this acer aspire notebook and it worked fine for one day.
The next morning on attempting to boot it, it goes through the bios and returns an error that it cannot locate the USB connection. It gives two options to boot from USB or from network.
How do i fix this, the guys i bought it from are telling me they will hav a look at it because it is a unique problem. Any ideas what could be wrong

The only problem I having with my Acer AspireOne AOA150-1982 is that it does not see the AC power supply while an external monitor is hook up. No free help from Acer Support even though the unit in under warranty. She is a fine little computer even though my friend thinks the screen too small and would like to use an external display but I not sure how to fix this problem.

hey all,
so i just got the acer one world wide partner thing for christmas… i have no clue how to get my internet connetion to work! I have a d-link and it says that my connection is available but when i go to connect it says im unable to connect with it…

Having read all of the earlier entries I’m compelled to report that I’ve had this Acer Aspire One AOA 150-1126 (9″ screen, XP, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD, 6volt battery) since Nov. ’08, and it has worked outstandingly. It’s been problem free, but I have not. Occasionally wandering fingers while keyboarding produce unexpected, sometimes inexplicable events … but that’s me hahaha, not the AA1. But here’s a question: How recognizable is the performance boost when one increases the RAM to 1.5GB? Mine requires substantial disassembling in order to add the RAM. Is the effort really worth it? Thanks!

My Acer Aspire One 10.1 will not start up. It gets to the screensaver, then says ‘shutting down and saving your settings’, and it won’t get past that. I tried safe mode, and alt+ F12, and alt + F10. Nothing. Can anyone help?

This is just someone’s review of the product from nearly 2 years ago … and a place for “comments”. It is not supposed to be a “help” facility, though several have done so.

Are you using only the battery? This might happen if your battery is low. Plug it in to the wall, let it charge for a while, and try again.

(For others) Many MANY of the questions asked here can be answered by the user’s guide/manual. See Start > All Programs > Acer System > User’s guide (or quick user’s guide). Look it’s a long read, but this is a complex little machine (that I LOVE). Take the time … it will answer some questions and solve some problems. When all else fails, read the instruction manual.

I use the machine (SS drive 8G/8G) with an external monitor unless “on the road”. Works geat. To make the external monitor work (via the “D” connector on the left side ), hold “Fn” and “F5″ down. Now with “Fn” held down, Key “F5″ to get the Acer screen only, or Acer + External, External Only, or External at 800×600 resolution (as for a projector, as pictured).

My USB mouse (generic) worked plug and play. So did my $12 external Logitech USB keyboard from WalMart. Never had any problem (6 mos) until I tried moving the temporary internet file folder (system file) to the “D” drive to “save” the main SSD. When I did this, then occasionally IE7 would close without warning. Don’t know why it doesn’t like that.

We must all remember that, unfortunately, the SS drive has a limited lifetime. A heavy user might “tire it out” in a year or two. Would be good to replace it when prices come down and you’ll have a “spare” that way if the new one goes out. Natch, you need to copy the system from the old to the new. Might need a geek for that.

I loved my Acer Aspire One until while I was visiting England it died on me. As it was still under warranty I contacted Acer’s Service Centre. I was given the third degree. They would not allow me even to send the computer to them for repair until I “proved” to them that I was not resident in England. They wanted a photocopy of my plane ticket! They also said repair would take 10 days, not the 5 specified in the Traveller’s Passport, and the Service Centre is deep in the west country, so taking the machine in and fetching it again are not options. I paid a private repair firm to get the Acer going again, but when I returned to Canada, Acer refused to refund what I had spent, even though the machine was still under warranty. My Acer is now out of warranty and has died again. in exactly the same way, with no warning. Apparently it writes over its BIOS. While it worked I loved it — but not enough to put up with its unreliability and the Acer’ company’s attitude.

hi everyone family purchased acer aspire one model za3 at xmas 2009 great screen display controls easy to use i am 66 and have no clue about computers love this little machine when it works ..screen and controls suddenly freeze .have to switch off and start again any solutions. thanks john. live in uk.

Hi anybody; I bought a netbook Acer AO 722 with Win 7, then recently I changed to Win XP. After changing to Win XP, the LCD projector cannot connected to the netbook. Anybody can help me please to solf the problem?
Regard
Aslim